• About me

myhumblefood

~ Cooking in and dining out. Foodie escapades and kitchen trials

myhumblefood

Tag Archives: One bowl meal

Shepherd’s Pie

22 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by denisegan in Breakfast and Brunch, Dinner, Home Cooking, Lamb, Lunch, Mains, One bowl meal, Sauces

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

autumn recipes, brunch, chives, comfort food, easy recipe, lamb mince, lamb sauce, lunch, mash, mashed potatoes, One bowl meal, pie, rosemary, sheperds pie, thyme, winter recipes, worcestershire sauce

I’ve been itching to have a go at making this pie for a while now! What’s not to love about creamy mashed potatoes and a hearty thick lamb mince ragu all in a single bowl? It’s a pretty balanced meal is it not? Carbs, protein and vegetables? Let’s forget for a moment about the amount of cream and cheese that went into it and label it as the ultimate balanced meal.

Comfort food. Easy to put together. I will definitely make this again! The recipe calls for peas and corn as well but I made do without them since I’ve got a picky eater on my hands today!

Ingredients 

Meat Layer

  • Minced lamb – around 700 grams
  • 2 carrots, diced into smallish cubes
  • 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
  • 1/2 cup fresh English peas (if you’re feeling lazy there’s always the frozen mixed vegetables option which has carrots, corn and peas all in one convenient bag. Use 1.5 cups of the mix then)
  • 4 cloves garlic finely minced
  • 1 cup minced onion
  • 3 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
  • 3 tsp thyme leaves
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 3 tbsps Tomato puree, have an additional 3 tbsps on hand if you prefer more of it in the ragu
  • 2 tbsps Worcestershire sauce – other recipes call for 1 tsp, I found it insufficient and ended to my taste, so add to your taste
  • 2 tbsps all purpose flour
  • pepper to taste

Potato Layer

  • 700 grams peeled russet potatoes approx.
  • 200 ml cream
  • 30g salted butter
  • pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp garlic powder (optional)
  • 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
  • fresh thyme leaves

Cooking Instructions  

  • Heat up butter in a large deep skillet on medium high heat
  • Add the chopped onions first, and cook until translucent and starting to caramelise.
  • Add the garlic and fry for about half a minute or so until that’s soft
  • At this point if the mixture is getting a tad too dry, add a little more butter. After which we can now put the lamb mince into the pan to brown. Break up the meat into small pieces (the smaller, the smoother the ragu will be, but that’s only if you like it that way)
  •  Mix in the vegetables, we’re only adding them now as we don’t want to overcook them
  • Sprinkle the thyme and rosemary over the mixture and give it a good stir.
  • Pour in the red wine, chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce and tomato puree and flour.
  • Bring the sauce to a boil and lower the heat to simmer for a couple of minutes. The flour should thicken the sauce in the process.
  • Turn the heat off and cover with a lid.

  • As for the potatoes, place them in a large pot and cover with cold water
  • Add salt to the water
  • Bring to a boil. Once they are pierced easily with a fork, drain them. Check in about 10 minutes, if the potatoes are still resistant to the fork the leave for a bit longer. However, take care that you don’t overcook them. Don’t want mushy potatoes!
  • Press the potatoes through a ricer (or mash them by hand) and put aside.
  • Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan and add the cream. Bring this to a gentle simmer before adding the potatoes to the cream and mixing it all up. Season with salt and pepper.
  • (Additional step:- you can put the mashed potatoes through a sieve to get rid of all the lumps for that smooth mash)

Ladle the ragu into your prettiest deep dish (one that is oven-compatible). Sprinkle a layer of cheese over the ragu.   Spread the mashed potatoes evenly over the ragu like so.
After which you’re done. You can use a fork to create patterns on the mash which will turn out a little crispy after some time in the oven. My ideal meat ragu to potato ratio  is 3:1.

However, you can add more if you like your mash. Here, I decorated the top by squeezing the potatoes through a decorative nozzle.

Sprinkle some cheese over the top of the mash layer, and arrange some thyme leaves strategically into the top layer as a sort of garnish and for the fragrance.

Bake at 205 Celsius for around 20-30 minutes
Added some chopped chives before serving, just because I like chives.
  

Lobster glass noodle soup with shaoxing wine.

13 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by denisegan in Chinese, Dinner, Healthy, Home Cooking, Lunch, Mains, One bowl meal, Seafood, Soup, South East Asian, Stew

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

big head prawn, big head prawn noodle soup, Chinese, chinese lettuce, chinese soup, chinese soup noodles, coriander, dinner, easy meals, glass noodles, healthy, Home Cooking, huatiao, large prawns, lobster, lobster glass noodle, lobster glass noodle soup, lobster noodle, lobster noodle soup, lunch, Noodles, One bowl meal, prawns, seafood, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, Soup, South East Asian, stew, wine broth, wine soup

IMG_9795.JPGHere is the second half of the lobster (first half of which went to making the lobster pasta) and the easier recipe of the two. The original version called for fresh river prawns/big head prawns but since I had the lobster, I figured I could use that instead and add in some large prawns as a bonus. Since there is no recipe that I could refer to online I tried to recreate the taste the best I could remember. Turns out I’m actually quite satisfied with the results! Now without further ado, the recipe:-

Ingredients (4 pax)

  • 1/2 lobster
  • 6 large prawns (in my first attempt I used 3, but the attempt with 6 prawns tasted better)
  • 1 inch ginger, sliced
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp minced onion
  • 1/2 cup Shaoxing wine (maybe a dash more if you like)
  • 5 cups chicken stock
  • Chinese lettuce (I used a quarter of a head), cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 150g Glass noodles
  • Spring onions chopped into large three inch sections.
  • Coriander for garnish
  • Finely chopped spring onions for garnish
  • salt

IMG_9644.JPGThe array of ingredientsIMG_9646.JPGGlass noodlesIMG_9651.JPGLarge lobster.

So we shall start with the prawns. De-shell all the prawns and set the shells/heads aside. Do NOT throw them away! Then devein them and cut each prawn into three sections.IMG_9648.JPGSize of the prawn heads and my hand, just for comparison. IMG_0545.JPGLots of flavour in those prawn heads! IMG_0546.JPG

IMG_0548.JPG

IMG_9653.JPGCut the lobster into half. If the lobster is as spiny as this one, do use a towel and be very careful when handling it. A pair of strong kitchen scissors would be a great help here.

More pictures of the lobster… as you can probably tell, I’ve added pictures from a second lobster noodle attempt into the mix. The second lobster looked way fresher and more succulent with its firmer white flesh and golden globules.IMG_9655-0.JPG

IMG_0549.JPG

IMG_0540.JPG

IMG_0542.JPGWhen you’ve managed to cut the lobster into half lengthwise, chop the tail into three parts and dig out some of the flesh from the head (I forgot to do that here) and set that aside with the prawns. Leave the orange/golden stuff behind.IMG_9657.JPG

IMG_9660.JPGHeat up some oil in a large pot and fry the ginger, garlic and onions until the onions are translucent and the aroma of the ginger comes out. It helps to crush the ginger before or during this step.IMG_9661.JPGAdd the prawn shells and fry until half cooked (almost that coral colour they become when they’re fully cooked) before adding the lobster head to the pot.IMG_9663.JPGContinue frying for a minute or so, adding a little oil if it gets too dry. Then add the shaoxing wine to soak up all that flavour that’s coming from the prawn shells and lobster head. I actually would have liked to add another half cup of shaoxing wine but I was worried my family may not like the taste so I stuck with half a cup, but go ahead and use that extra half a cup if you like. IMG_9667.JPG

Add the stock and simmer for around 15 minutes before turning off the heat. Cover the pot with its respective lid and leave it for perhaps an hour.

Then, remove the prawn shells from the stock (if you had a strainer bag in the first place, use it to hold the prawn shells because it can be a chore to pick them out from the soup).IMG_9668.JPG

Toss in the lobster and prawn meat that was set aside earlier, along with the spring onion sections, lettuce and glass noodles. The reason why we cook the shells and the meat separately is so that we can extract the most flavour out of the seafood from the shells without overcooking the meat, which is only added at the end. If you were to cook the meat right at the start, you’re going to end up with some very hard, overcooked and dry chunks of prawn/lobster which is such a waste of good seafood.

Place the lid back on and bring the soup to a boil.IMG_9714.JPG

IMG_9715.JPGIMG_9716.JPGAdd the sesame oil at the end and season with salt. Top with chopped spring onions and coriander. Easy peasy!IMG_9744.JPG

IMG_9721.JPG

IMG_9750.JPG

Hoedeopbap again!

04 Saturday Oct 2014

Posted by denisegan in Dinner, Fish, Home Cooking, Korean, Lunch, One bowl meal, Rice, Salad, Sauces, Seafood

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

dinner, easy recipe, healthy, hoedeopbap, hotate, hwedeopbap, koream sashimi salad, lunch, One bowl meal, quick meal, sake, salad, salmon, sashimi, scallops

IMG_6520.JPG

Bought some really fresh, plump salmon sashimi and some scallop as well. Thought I’d just quickly whip up some hoedeopbap (Korean sashimi salad) to go with some freshly cooked rice. Rice is one of my guilty pleasures and I try not to have carbs at night but I couldn’t resist… yet again T___T

Here’s the link to the initial post I did up on Hoedeopbap. I just changed some of the vegetables and type of fish according to the ingredients that I have on hand. The one thing that doesn’t change is the sauce. Also, I managed to get hold of Korean perilla leaves (kkaenip)! It was so difficult to find in Singapore, so I was shocked when I came across it by accident in a korean grocery store in Kuala Lumpur. I quickly snapped up 3 packs of it!

IMG_5087.JPG

IMG_5086.JPG

My prize: the korean perilla leaf in all its glory

IMG_6522.JPG

IMG_6519.JPG

And the rest is just arranging the salad so it looks pretty 😉

IMG_6521.JPG

IMG_5128.JPG

Mix it up well and good.

IMG_5127.JPG

Devour!IMG_5136.JPG

IMG_5134.JPG❤

Chicken Udon Noodle Soup

20 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by denisegan in Chinese, Healthy, Home Cooking, Mains, Noodles, One bowl meal, Soup

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Chinese, healthy, Home Cooking, Noodles, One bowl meal, Soup

Chicken Soup made with whole chicken and spare ribs

Chicken Soup made with whole chicken and spare ribs

This is one of the easiest dishes that you can prepare beforehand. It is basically just udon noodles and chicken soup. You can even cook a big pot of chicken soup and freeze it. If you ever feel a little peckish or in need of a hot bowl of noodles and soup, just pop some frozen soup into a saucepan and heat it up before adding to the noodles. Of course you can reach for your favourite instant noodles like Indomie, tomyum, instant ramen and the like. However if you are like me and have outgrown your fair share of instant noodles having OD-ed on them in college/university, you would come to appreciate the healthy, non-MSG broth. Just as with instant noodles, you can add whatever toppings you desire. My usual toppings tend to be fishballs and vegetables.

Ingredients

Soup (for 7-8 pax)

  1. 1 Whole chicken
  2. 3-4 Spare ribs chunks
  3. 4-5 Cloves of peeled Garlic, smushed
  4. Optional: 2 Medium Carrots, 1 Large Onion and some fresh Corn
  5. 2-3 tbsp Soy sauce or to taste
  6. 1/2 tbsp White pepper

Noodles

  1. Udon noodles (You can buy these from supermarkets in packets)

Toppings/Condiments

  1. 4 Fish balls per bowl
  2. Vegetables, you could use spinach, pak choy, whatever you like
  3. 2-3 Chilli padi pieces per person, sliced
  4. Soy Sauce

Cooking Instructions

  1. Rinse the chicken in running water and get rid of any remaining feathers. Clean out the cavity of the chicken and rinse with running water as well. 
  2. Next, remove excess fat and skin of the chicken. You do not want all the extra chicken grease floating about on the surface of the soup. I like to remove the head of the chicken (I feel guilty and sick everytime I fish out the chicken head from the soup so I just remove it at the start) as well as the tail of the chicken as I find the smell/taste too strong. Kind of like… chicken bum =(
  3. Lower the chicken and spare ribs into boiling hot water for about 5 minutes to get rid of the extra blood and fat. Throw out this water after 5 minutes and replenish the pot with fresh hot water. Make sure you have enough water to cover the whole chicken and have about 2 inches of water above the chicken.
  4. At this point you can add the garlic. If you prefer your broth to be a little sweeter, throw in some chunks of carrot, onions and fresh corn. You may add sliced ginger as well if you like.
  5. As the water boils, skim off the scum and fat from the surface of the soup. You can recognize it by the dirty looking froth that emerges after several minutes of cooking the soup. These would consist of fat and blood and if not removed, will cloud the soup. Continuously skimming off the scum as you cook will give you a clear, appetizing broth.
  6. Keep the pot on medium-high heat for about 40 minutes, then turn off the gas and let it stand for another hour. Season with white pepper and light soy sauce.
  7. Prepare the udon according to the packet instructions, make sure you do not cook the udon in the chicken broth itself as it imparts its flavour into the soup. Not yummy at all. Also ensure that udon is still chewy, don’t overcook it as it gets mushy.
  8. Drain the water from your noodles and place in serving bowl.
  9. Cook your fishballs and vegetables in the soup.
  10. Ladle your soup, fishballs, vegetables and some chicken meat into the serving bowl over the noodles.
  11. Serve with cut chilli padi and soy sauce.

Udon noodles and the vegetable of your choice

Udon noodles and the vegetable of your choice


Udon soup in Chicken broth served with cut chilli padi and soy sauce

Udon soup in Chicken broth served with cut chilli padi and soy sauce

Recent Posts

  • Myhumblefood is now on YouTube!
  • Kazu Sumiyaki (Cuppage plaza revisited)
  • Free the Robot (Singapore CBD)
  • Fuego, Kuala Lumpur
  • Kita no Ryoba, Sapporo, Hokkaido (Revisited)

Archives

  • June 2020
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • July 2012
  • February 2012
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • April 2011
  • September 2010
  • June 2010

Categories

  • Alcohol
  • Beef
  • Bento
  • Bread
  • Breakfast and Brunch
  • Cakes
  • Chicken
  • Chinese
  • Condiments
  • Confectionery
  • Cookbook
  • Cookies
  • Desserts
  • Dinner
  • Dips
  • Drinks
  • Eggs
  • Fish
  • Healthy
  • Home Cooking
  • Italian
  • Japan restaurant reviews
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Lamb
  • Lunch
  • Mains
  • Nonya
  • Noodles
  • One bowl meal
  • Pasta
  • Pork
  • Restaurant review
  • Rice
  • Salad
  • sandwich
  • Sauces
  • Seafood
  • sides
  • Snack/Light Meals
  • Soup
  • South East Asian
  • Starter
  • Stew
  • Uncategorized
  • Vegetables
  • Western
  • Wine

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel